Lowell State College

Lowell State College

Type	Public
Established	June 6, 1894
Location	Lowell , Massachusetts , United States 42°38′31.13″N 71°20′7.30″W
Campus	Urban
Website	http://www.uml.edu

Lowell State College was a public college located in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1894 as the Lowell Normal School.

History

Early years

Coburn Hall in 1899

Geography class at Lowell Normal School in the early 1900s.

The school was established by an act of legislation on June 6, 1894. It was the tenth and last state normal school established by the state board of education.

The original building, now named Coburn Hall, was built in 1897. It was built at the corner of Broadway and Wilder Street, after the state selected the site and the city bought the land.. Four classes met on the Wilder Street side of the structure when classes first started, on October 4, 1897 as the building was still unfinished. The building was dedicated on June 15, 1898. Frank F. Coburn, for whom the hall is named, was appointed the school's first principal. He remained there until 1908.

The main mission of the school at that time was to prepare students for the teaching of elementary education. Courses typically took two years, with the third and fourth years optional because of space in the building. In 1910, the mission of the school expanded with the creation of a three-year music program.

As the mission of the school was to train the students, they needed space so that the students would be able to practice their skills. The nearby Bartlett Training School was first used when twenty seven rooms were made available. Before 1910, additional training schools began operation in Lawrence and at a rural school in North Tewksbury.

In 1932, the school's name was changed to State Teachers College at Lowell. Unofficially, the school was referred to as Lowell Teachers College. During the time that Clarence Weed was the principal, a three-year course in elementary education became standard. Later, this was extended to four years.

In the late 1930s, the school faced closure due to a state plan to close four state colleges. A delegation of prominent individuals representing Lowell's powerful pressure groups traveled to Boston and convinced State officials of the importance of the college. The result was that the school not only survived but continued to grow and expand.

Expansion

In 1950, Daniel O'Leary assumed the presidency and initiated an ambitious building program. The physical plant increased from a single building to a multi-building complex that it is today. One of the first buildings was Concordia Hall. The dedication of buildings named for each of the six presidents was held on June 9, 1974. These buildings were built in the style of brutalism.

In 1959, the school was empowered to offer curriculum in secondary education. It also gained university status that year. The State Teachers College was renamed Massachusetts State College in 1960. The next year a liberal arts degree program was offered for the first time. Beginning in 1967, the school was authorized to confer two more degrees. These degrees were master of education and master of music education.

Merger

In 1972, a feasibility study was conducted on merging the school with the nearby Lowell Technological Institute. In 1975, the schools merged to form the University of Lowell, which changed its name in 1991 to the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Today, the school's campus is known as the South Campus of UMass Lowell.

The College of Education was relocated to a new campus, West Campus, after the University acquired a tract of land in North Chelmsford. The property was the site of the old Middlesex County Training School. The Graduate School of Education now resides in the O'Leary Library.

External links

• Graduate School of Education Umass Lowell-History
• University of Massachusetts-Lowell